Probably worth noting in here that Spotify is officially purchasing The Ringer.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/b...l-simmons.html

Dave Portnoy reviews my go to pizza spot. It is an awesome pie. If you eat a double XL by yourself you get a free t shirt. I've done it about 9 times.

Barstool Pizza Review - Pete & Elda's Bar / Carmen's Pizzeria (Neptune City, NJ) pic.twitter.com/je42NiAcPj

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) February 12, 2020

Pretty good job by the Sports Guy.

The Greinke article today is probably one of the 5 most entertaining I've read on The Athletic.

‘One in 10 million’: An oral history of Zack Greinke’s years with the Royals – The Athletic

The Hardball Times has shut down and Fangraphs has created memberships ($20 for a year or $50 ad free), is taking donations, and will soon start selling merchandise in an attempt to stay operational. They estimate they need 40,000 membership fees or the equivalent spent on merchandise.

No baseball means no traffic for these sites and they also said ads are paying, on average, about 45% less than usual right now.

Yikes! Hate to hear that for Hardball Times and if Fangraphs goes by the wayside, that's going to be a massive loss.

Another round of layoffs in sports media today. This time at the Athletic and SB Nation/Banner Society.

First full day of baseball season after a 4 month delay. I turn on MLB network on sirius/ XM and they are talking about 3D printed chicken nuggets and I turn on Sirius XM fantasy radio and they are talking about if you should draft Gardner Minshew in a one QB fantasy league. WTF?

To be fair, I could easily see ESPN broadcast team spend a full half inning talking about 3D printed chicken nuggets.

I'll admit I was intrigued.

This is not a paid advertisement.

The Athletic is offering monthly subscriptions for $1 per month for 12 months.

Wow, that's a pretty amazing price!

The former staff of Deadspin launched a website called Defector.com

Although the name is kind of dumb, if you liked Deadspin, it is worth subscribing to.

Not as cheap as the athletic right now but i think 70 bucks for the year? I think it is well worth it.

The only issue I have with Defector is that they seem to not give a shit about MLS. Considering that old Deadspin was completely shitty to MLS, I'm not inclined to give them any money if they have the same mentality.

I just listened to a clip of a Bill Simmons bit, and I realized that I have not listened to him in months.

Some of that is pandemic reducing my drive/podcast time. But some of it is just there are a lot of people doing a lot more interesting stuff now, and he hasn't really changed in 20 years. Even the clip I listened to sounded like something he could have said at any point since 2000.

It wasn't a conscious decision to stop listening to him. Just that there's always something I'd rather listen to on my feed.

I did that with Jim Rome about 15+ years ago. I just realized he had nothing more to say and I had "outgrown" him.

SI

I don't think I had listened to his podcast since before Memorial Day. I checked in after the Clippers loss because I really do (did?) enjoy his basketball takes. It was just lacking compared to some of the other podcasts I listen to.

Guess the Lines with Bill Simmons and Sal is sill one of my favorite listens. It was great to hear them again.

I enjoy the rewatchable movie podcasts too.

I don't think I listen to whatever the actual "Bill Simmons podcast" is unless he's talking about something besides sports. Sports talk is something I just have no interest in anymore, unless it's through a fun gimmick and mostly comedy-based like Guess the lines.

I guess ESPN stopped getting the show.

Dan Le Batard is leaving ESPN in January

Just saw that. I am amazed ESPN thinks people want to listen to Greenburg anymore.

No crap. LeBatard is the only show I will watch/listen to on ESPN. I don't dislike Greeny at all, just have no need for that kind of radio/TV personality in my life. I guess I'm at the "spoof Greeny show" stage - I can't stand analysis tradio/TV and haven't watched many pre-game shows for years and years.

You think they would have noticed when his show almost immediately got an hour cut like a month after it started

Vanderbilt announcer Joe Fisher resigns and goes into rehab after coaches show.

Vandy broadcaster Joe Fisher resigns, enters rehab after 'unacceptable' on-air behavior

Hate to hear that Le Batard is leaving. I didn't watch his show often, but did enjoy it.

The only ESPN show I'll regularly watch these days is PTI. Once they're done, I don't know if there's a sports talk show that I'd like.

I saw this when I looked up the Le Batard story and I have some questions. I am making a few assumptions here. I wouldn't think they would put a complete novice as the producer role for the coaches show. If you are the producer and everyone is in the studio, the producer has to see and hear the issues that are occurring right in front of you, right? If he is on a Zoom call or such, the producer has to hear and see that prior to the show starting, right? I wouldn't think they would put a complete novice as the producer role for the coaches show. Shouldn't the producer have made the call to pull the plug on the show to protect the broadcaster if not the station? I guess it is possible that Fisher was a prick and someone let him hang himself. It seems weird that they would let this go out on the air and for forty minutes at that.

I couldn't easily count all the coaches show (or post-game show) participants I've heard work clearly drunk (caused buzzed as hell IS drunk technically).
I mean, they're hosted in bars pretty frequently, it goes with the territory to some extent.

Most producers for something like that would have 1-3 years experience top -- exceptions exist but that'd be the norm, they're glorified board operators mostly -- it'd be a rare thing for one to have the balls to make any sort of decision on their own. And if they did, they be risking their own job even if they were correct.

Are the producers that young? I remember seeing a few of the Hurricane coaches show with Jimmy Johnson when I was in high school. The producer on site was an older guy. Of course I had no idea how long he has been doing the job. Just thought they would have looked out for the old treasured broadcast guy.

It would be unusual to find much experience in the position in 2020 IMO, though I will say it probably comes down to who was in charge of the staffing -- the flagship station or the radio network rightsholder (mostly IMG at this point).

The latter is more likely to invest in an experienced freelancer than the former, who rarely would have any sort of veteran left on payroll by now. Full-time radio staffing is far more skeletal than many people realize I think.

I guess this is old news by a few weeks, but I just saw that Tom Rinaldi is going to Fox Sports.

The baseball season has taught me that Fox regional sports networks are now the Bally Sports Networks. Now I can not stop thinking going to Bally's gym for the first time when I was a kid with my dad.

Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell is retiring after 52 years at the newspaper Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell is retiring after 52 years at the newspaper

Boswell was a regular read for me when his columns appeared in the Stars and Stripes. Brilliant columnist.

Kenny Mayne was way too good for what ESPN became.

“F— you Aaron Rodgers” ������ pic.twitter.com/ssYquS0OdF

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) May 25, 2021

LMAO, Mayne was the jewel of the station and yet Stephan A bloviates on.

I saw that he had his Week One guess the lines pod with Cousin Sal up and decided to listen to help get ready for the season. The very first substantive point he made was comparing Belichick to Brady by making an analogy to the Rocky 3 training montage.

That man has taken "don't ever change" to an art form.

Anyone know what's going on with Todd McShay? I saw the clip of him this past weekend - which wasn't the first time he's looked off - and now he's taking time away. Is it an undisclosed medical issue, addiction, mental...? I hope he gets well, whatever it is. Seemed to come out of nowhere.

Nothing out there beyond speculation at this point afaik.

correct me if I'm wrong but I think he had COVID

He had a weird episode last year too where it sure seemed like he was drunk.

It's all speculation but if you watch the clips, I think it's clear he's battling some demons.

On Twitter just now from his account:

I am going to take some time away to focus on my health and my family. Thank you ESPN for being so supportive and for all the well wishes - I can’t wait to be back on the sidelines soon.

Yeah that's what I saw earlier that prompted my post. Actually, I saw SVPs retweet.

I completely missed the whole "Aikman might be leaving Fox" storyline. I think he's been pretty solid. I can't tell from what I've seen whether he's looking to get in on the Amazon thing or if Fox is pushing him out the door.

I feel like QB have a shelf life. Well, really any ex-players. At this point, realistically, nobody under 30 can really remember seeing him play. Got to make room for the new batch of retirees. Surprised guys like Simms and Esiason still hang onto studio jobs.

(I don't think he was particularly insightful as it is.)

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo will co-host First Take every Wednesday

I mean I won't watch because I have no interest in watching argument TV. However, if this is your thing, I think these are HOFer TV arguers, no?

They should just add Colin Cowherd and Skip Bayless so I can put all of the useless show people in one place for me to avoid.

I won't watch for the same reason but like most sports fans my age who grew up where I did I love Maddog.

Not a fan of Herbstreit doing NFL games. I'm not a fan of him personally, but I also don't like mixing college and NFL announcers. It rarely works. Tessatore never felt right doing the NFL, for example, and his demeanor was just all wrong, IMO.

Anyway, will be interesting to see if Amazon finally gets Al Michaels done now that they know the color analyst, or whether they do something else. Herbstreit bouncing between NFL and college Thursday to Saturday... good luck with that schedule.

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman sign multiyear deals with ESPN to be voices of Monday Night Football

Does it matter?

Fantastic news. I don't have to listen to Joe Buck on Fox anymore and I don't have ESPN.

Guess I'm watching the Manning broadcast.